Day 16: Eye of the Storm

Somewhere, in the depths of Hell (Read: Australia), a great beast awoke.

"HAACHAMACHAMAAA~!"

-

"KIKKERIKIII~" Kiara's voice blasted through the phone. Ryan smiled softly. He really missed this. Even though he heard it yesterday, being shot in the head probably constitutes for something.

"Morning, Tenchou," Ryan said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He slept like the dead last night, sleeping earlier than he had in weeks. "What's up?"

"Can you come to work?" Kiara asked, a faux sweetness in her voice. Ryan sighed, remembering his second day and how grumpy he was. Now, his smile only grew. "I need a couple extra hands."

"Sure, as long as I don't lose any of my fingers in the process."

-

Ryan cracks his back as he walks into the restaurant. "Morning," He says, cracking his neck.

"KIKKERIKIII~!!!" Kiara pops out from below the counter. "We're going to be doing something very important today."

"What is this very important thing?" Ryan asked, intrigued. If he remembered correctly, today was the day Pekora and Pekomama came over. He then thought back to the previous day. He did some googling on popular time travel theories and learned about something called the "butterfly effect". The main premise of it is that when a butterfly flaps its wings, somewhere across the world, a hurricane starts. Maybe doing some things differently had altered the time stream to the point where nothing is the same. Ryan resisted the urge to sigh at his thoughts. He'll take things as it goes.

"We're going to be building a gaming console!" Kiara shot her arm in the air, childlike glee all over her face.

"Don't you own a video game company?" Ryan asked. He knew this because he owned a Kiara Fried Phoenix Console.

"Yeah, but it'll be fun!" Kiara said.

"Well, you're the boss," Ryan shrugged. Maybe his expertise in gaming alone for a year straight will finally come to good use.

'Who am I kidding? I wasted that year,' Ryan thought to himself as he walked over to Kiara, who handed him a wrench.

"What the fuck is this?" Ryan looked at what Kiara was working on, which was a pile of dust and ash with a few nails on top of it.

"It's my console!" Kiara chirped, giving him an expectant look.

"I'll get the broom," Ryan grumbled, making his way to the break room.

"OOHCHA!" Gura kicked both of the glass doors open. "GUYS, GUESS WHAT?!"

"It's about time the gremlin got off her ass and put a ring on it," Ryan said, sweeping up the specks of Kiara's "console".

"You knew?!" Gura hopped over to the counter to take a seat.

"Of course he did," Amelia walked into the restaurant in a lot more casual manner than her fiancée. "He's the one who told me to do it."

"How come I've never met him before, then?" Gura turned to Amelia.

"That's…" Amelia paused, looking away. A drop of sweat beaded her forehead. "A long story. I'll tell you a little later."

"C'mon!" Kiara said, wiping her eyes. She was honestly too attached to that pile of nails and ash. "I want to know the story too!"

"Trust me," Ryan sighed. "You probably don't."

"Takanashi-san!" Brianna rushed into the door. "Do you know where-,"

She stopped when she saw Ryan. "Morning, Yo-chan," Ryan waved lazily as he finished throwing the contents of his dustpan into the trash. "Man, it sure is crowded today. Isn't it only the second day?"

"How do you know my nickname?" Brianna asked. Ryan assumed she was narrowing her eyes but couldn't tell considering her mask.

"Amelia's clock told me," Ryan said. Brianna looked at Amelia, who nodded in confirmation before turning to Ryan.

"I think we've been through enough for you to call me Ame, though," Amelia said.

"Whatever, Ame," Ryan rolled his eyes, biting back a witty remark about how she was the only one dodging bullets. Whether Brianna knew the secret meaning behind their inside joke about the clock or thought that they didn't want her to tell the truth was undeterminable, but she decided to not press on it.

"We need to have words later, Ryan," Brianna grumbled. At that moment, someone else opened the door. A man, roughly six feet in height wearing a blue trench coat and a checkered shirt with dark brown cargo shorts. His short, jet black hair was unruly and spiky. He dawned a similar mask to Brianna, except the giant number 4 was replaced by a 3. He walked over and sat down next to Amelia.

"I'll have the strongest alcohol you've got," he said.

"Boss?!" Amelia looked visibly shocked at the man's appearance. "What are you doing here?!"

"Who's that?" Gura asked her curiously.

"He was my boss back in Britain before I was assigned here," Amelia explained.

"I do have this very strong alcohol, but as far as I know, only Haachama can drink this without passing out on the first shot," Kiara said. "It's 100 percent alcohol, somehow."

"Ah, she does take after me," The man sighed. "I'll have that."

"Are you sure?" Kiara asked. "Even if you have met Haachama and lived to tell the tale, it still might be a bit dangerous to drink."

"Don't worry about me, manager-san," The man waved his hand dismissively. "You're talking about the Dragonson liquor, right? That's my favorite."

"If you insist," Kiara went to the back to salvage the alleged 'dangerous alcohol',

"Nice to meet you," Ryan turned his attention to the man. "My name is Ryan Shade."

"Shade tells me to use my code name, but you can just call me Jack," the guy said.

"Nice to meet you, Jack," Ryan said.

"I asked you a question, Jack," Amelia playfully glared at her former boss.

"You know damn well why I'm here, Amelia," Jack shot back.

"Ugh, do we really have to do this now?" Amelia rolled her eyes. "Kiara doesn't know about the whole clock deal."

"Fine, we'll talk about this later," Jack shrugged.

"Should I be involved in this conversation?" Ryan asked curiously, picking up on the whole clock thing.

"No/Yes," Jack and Amelia said at the same time before the two of them turned to look at each other.

"You got him involved?!" Jack asked, almost shouting.

"It wasn't my fault!" Amelia defended herself. "It just happened!"

Jack sighed in defeat before turning back to the counter, putting his hands over his mask. "I should have seen this coming."

"Ame, what's he talking about?" Gura tugged Amelia's coat, a worried expression on her face.

"I'll tell you when we leave," Amelia gave Gura a reassuring look. "It's kind of a secret."

"Okay," Gura's worried expression softened, but didn't leave.

"HAACHAMACHAMAAA~!" For the second time that day, the door was kicked in. This time by a girl wearing a high school uniform.

"Haato-chan!" Jack turned around, excitement in his voice.

"Dragon-san!" The girl ran up and gave the tall man a hug. "I didn't know you were coming to Japan!"

"I didn't know you were leaving Australia!" Jack exclaimed.

"What kind of crazy…" Gura's voice trailed off.

"Don't ask," Ryan caught Amelia whispering in Gura's ear. "Apparently he likes her cooking."

"What?!" Gura whispered back. "Last time I ate her food, I passed out for a week!"

Ryan shuddered. He did not want to know what kind of "food" can cause a shark to pass out for a week.

"Found it!" Kiara walked over from the back and proceeded to almost drop the alcohol when he saw the schoolgirl. "HAACHAMA?!"

"Yep!" The girl chirped. "That's me!"

"Haato-san! Can we go? I want to see what kind of meals you've come up with since I've last seen you," Jack asked.

"Sure!" Haachama tugged on his arm, pulling him out of the restaurant.

"Ryan! Amelia! We'll talk later!" Jack called as he was dragged off by the crazy high schooler.

"I guess I should follow them," Brianna grumbled, walking off. "I swear, if someone dies because of the smell again, I'm going to be in big trouble."

"Do I even want to ask?" Ryan looked at the three girls one by one.

"Nope," they all said at the same time.

-

Ryan dialed up Sabrina's number, not wanting to break the tradition.

"Hello?" Sabrina said through the phone. There was a lot of screaming going on in the background, so Sabrina's voice could barely be heard.

"Hey, Sabrina," Ryan said, obviously shook that she even picked up. "How are you?"

"I'm…" Sabrina paused. "I'm good! I'm in the airport right now. Lots of screaming babies."

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME A BABY?!" Ryan could swear that Haachama's voice could be heard in the background.

Before Ryan could say anything, there was a knock on the door. He knew who it was. He sighed, considering his options. "Hey, I have to go. Someone's at the door."

"Okay!" Sabrina sounded cheery as an explosion went off in the background. "I'll see you soon!"

"Yeah," Ryan hung up the phone, bracing himself for what was going to happen next. He walked over and opened the door.

"Hello, I am with the-," The soldier was cut off when Ryan kneed him in the stomach. He knew that this wouldn't really affect MILF, but Ryan had been bottling up his anger. Despite the fact that he was, well you know, dead for most of it, MILF had killed a great number of his friends. At first, he wasn't too mad about it, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he got about it. As the soldier hunched over, he held him down by then neck and grabbed his pistol, shooting him in the back of the head.

"That was for shooting me in the head," Ryan said as the soldier fell to the floor, dead. Ryan watched the blood form on the floor before unloading the gun on the soldier. "And that was for my friends."

He then took out his phone and dialed up Kiara's number. "Hey, Ryan!" Kiara chirped through the phone. "What do you need?"

"Tenchou, I need a favor," Ryan said.

"What is it?"

"Can you help me hide a dead body?"

-

"So, what's this thing you wanted to tell me?" Gura asked as she closed the door behind Amelia before sitting on the bed.

"Well…" Amelia sat down next to her as her voice trailed off. Gura put a hand on hers, their wedding rings shining in the dim light. Amelia turned to look at Gura, who was giving her a kind smile.

"It's okay," Gura said, giving Amelia a kiss. "I'll support you no matter what."

"Okay," Amelia forced a smile. Gura noticed this but didn't say anything. She could tell that whatever Amelia went through was hard to talk about, so she just gripped her fiancée's hand and continued to smile at her.

"Well, I actually came from two weeks in the future…" Amelia started. "That's how I met Ryan. Yesterday was his first day at work. I admit that we've only talked a few times, but he treated me well, considering he is purely non-magical."

"He's non-magical?" Gura looked shocked at this. "He seemed so calm around Calli and Ina. He even reacted calmly when Calli attacked Kiara."

"He was surprised the first time around, but he was still nice to all of us," Amelia replied. "It all happened two weeks from yesterday when he… died."

"What happened..?" Gura asked. She didn't like where this was going, but she decided to press on anyways. She wanted to know what had Amelia so troubled. She was always so happy and cheerful, and to see her like this was worrying to say the least. Of course, Gura didn't let it affect her relationship with her, but it was a reasonable cause for concern.

"Everyone was at the KFP. We were celebrating two weeks of the store being opened and…" Amelia wiped her eyes. "Ryan suddenly tackled Kiara all of a sudden. I didn't know why at first, but then a bullet came out of nowhere and hit him square in the head."

Gura tightened her grip as a reassurance that she was still there and listening. "Then a bunch of MILF soldiers stormed the joint," Amelia's voice started to falter. "My instincts told me to hide behind the counter, so I did. God, Gura… the screams… your scream… I couldn't…"

Gura pulled her fiancée into her arms. "Hey, it's okay, Ame," She stroked her hair. "What matters that I'm here now, and I'm not gonna leave you."

"Yeah…" Amelia hugged her back. "We're gonna be together forever…"